Modular Kitchen Warranty and After-Sales: What's Actually Covered

AlcorOne Solutions is an interior contracting firm working across Hyderabad — Gachibowli, Kondapur, Kokapet, and the Financial District — delivering turnkey residential fit-outs with itemised BOQs. This page sets out how warranty and after-sales actually work on a modular kitchen, and what to ask any contractor before you sign.

The single most misunderstood thing about a kitchen warranty

A modular kitchen is not one product. It is four or five different manufacturers' products, assembled by a contractor. The warranty is layered the same way, and buyers routinely miss it.

• The carcass board can be warranted by the contractor as well as the board brand. Board brands issue their own warranties on their own terms. AlcorOne additionally warrants the plywood carcass it builds for ten years from handover, against delamination, borer attack and manufacturing defect in the board — provided the grade in the signed BOQ is the grade supplied and installed: BWP to IS:710 in wet zones, BWR to IS:303 above the splash line.
• The laminate carries the laminate manufacturer's warranty, where the brand issues one — a separate brand, a separate warranty document, separate terms. It is not part of a carcass warranty.
• The hardware and fixtures carry the fittings manufacturer's warranty. Hinges, channels, drawer systems, lift-ups and baskets are warranted by Hettich, Blum, Häfele, Ebco or whichever brand is specified in your BOQ.
• The workmanship is the contractor's own warranty. At AlcorOne that runs for one year from handover and covers how the kitchen was built and fitted — alignment, levelling, fixing, edge-banding and similar.

Ask a contractor "what's your warranty?" and you will get a number. Ask "which of those years is yours and which is the board brand's?" and you will learn whether they understand their own offer.

So when a quote leads with a ten-year figure, ask which component it covers. On AlcorOne's own terms, ten years is the carcass board and nothing else; the installation is one year. A headline that does not say which is which is hiding the shorter number.

The distinction matters most at the moment of failure. A shutter that has warped is a materials question. A shutter that is out of alignment is a workmanship question. A shutter whose laminate has lifted at the edge could be either, and the diagnosis determines who you claim from.

What each warranty actually covers

Two things to note about that table. First, only two of the six rows are AlcorOne's own promise — the carcass and the workmanship — and they run for very different lengths. The other four are brand warranties handed to you. Second, the value of a pass-through warranty is entirely determined by the brand and grade specified in your BOQ. A generic "premium hardware" line gives you nothing to claim against; "Hettich InnoTech Atira 470mm" gives you a warrantor with a name.

At handover, AlcorOne registers the manufacturer warranty documentation in your name, so a brand claim does not depend on anyone's records years later. Workmanship defects found in the handover snag list are rectified before final sign-off at no additional cost.

Who you claim from, and how

This is the question that decides whether a warranty is useful or ornamental. A warranty you have to chase across three companies yourself is worth far less than the same warranty administered on your behalf.

For the carcass board and the workmanship, AlcorOne is the warrantor, so the claim is with us directly. For a manufacturer-warranted component — laminate, hardware, an appliance — AlcorOne facilitates the claim on your behalf rather than leaving you to chase the brand yourself.

What to do when something fails

1. Log the issue with photographs, before anything is dismantled or repaired by a third party.
2. Identify the component — board, finish, hardware, countertop, appliance, or the joinery itself.
3. Report it to whoever warrants that component. On an AlcorOne kitchen that is AlcorOne in every case — through the contact page — since we either hold the warranty or facilitate the brand's claim.
4. Keep the warranty documentation from handover to hand; the brand will ask for it.

Do not have a third party attempt a repair first. On almost every manufacturer warranty, and on most workmanship warranties, unauthorised repair or modification is a standard exclusion. Photograph it, report it, and wait for the assessment.

What is not covered

AlcorOne's published terms exclude three things from every tier:

• Water ingress originating from base-building or plumbing defects outside AlcorOne's scope.
• Damage from misuse, unauthorised modification, or third-party work carried out after handover.
• Normal wear to finishes.

Manufacturer warranties carry their own exclusions, set by each brand — read them with the warranty card, not the quotation. And the ten-year carcass term is conditional on the BOQ-specified board grade being the grade supplied and installed, which is one more reason the grade belongs on the BOQ line, by name.

After the warranty period ends

Once the one-year workmanship warranty has expired, AlcorOne offers an optional annual preventive maintenance service on a chargeable basis, quoted per project. The ten-year carcass term and the brands' own terms keep running independently of it.

What to ask before you sign

Regardless of who you build with, these questions separate a real warranty from a marketing line. None of them require you to know anything technical.

• "Which parts of this warranty are yours, and which are the brands'?" A contractor who cannot separate the two is unlikely to administer either.
• "Is the brand and model written per line in the BOQ?" A pass-through warranty is only as enforceable as the specification it attaches to. "Soft-close hardware" names no warrantor.
• "Will I receive the manufacturer warranty cards and invoices at handover?" Without them, a brand claim is difficult to establish years later.
• "Who raises a manufacturer claim — you or me?" Ask for the answer in writing.
• "What voids it, in writing?" A warranty with no stated exclusions is not a warranty, it is a sentence.
• "What is the response time on a service call, and what happens after the period ends?"

Related reading: the hardware guide covers why brand-and-model specification matters, the plywood grade guide explains what a board warranty is actually warranting, and the snagging checklist covers the handover inspection that catches workmanship defects before they become warranty claims. AlcorOne's full contractual terms are on the Terms of Service page.

Standards, regulatory registries, and manufacturer references that back the material grades, pricing framework, and compliance points in this guide:

• BIS IS 710 — Marine (BWP) grade plywood
• BIS IS 303 — Plywood for general purposes (MR/BWR/BWP)
• Hettich India — furniture fittings
• Blum India — hinges & drawer systems
• Häfele India — hardware & fittings
• Telangana RERA — project registry